The road to Dialogues des Carmélites began when we announced a search for 100 supernumeraries for Robert Carsen's acclaimed production of Poulenc's intense opera.

Parlando: The COC BlogWhat's a supernumerary? ( From the House of the Dead by Leos Janáček - The COC's production was presented in 2008. There were 63 supernum...

Casting call for supernumerariesCanadian Opera

It's all happening! @cdanders getting his pic taken at casting call for #supers @CanadianOpera pic.twitter.com/swx5YPVZColleen Tweetz

Canadian Opera Company holding casting call for hundreds of 'supers' | Toronto StarThe highlight of Jim Lucas's 22-year opera career was playing dead for an hour in Gianni Schicchi - twice. Marie Colucci has fond memorie...

After a long process of auditions and fittings, our cast was complete and rehearsals began in late March!

Canadian Opera Chorus shines under Sandra Horst's leadership | Toronto StarChorus master Sandra Horst looks at a clock on the desk in front of her and then at her sheets of music. There she has calculated the exa...

But as April progressed, we moved from the rehearsal studio to the stage of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts!

This week we start on-stage rehearsals for #Dialogues @CanadianOperaAlexander Neef

Excited to move into the 4 Seasons Center today with Dialogues at the @CanadianOpera!! #4SeasonFever #todayAngela Hydes

And while our cast rehearsed, the crew was hard at work prepping the stage for all the nuns.

Tour with the supers of #dialogues at the Four Seasons Centre - this is where the magic happens! @CanadianOpera pic.twitter.com/RZitiYBFekPeter Wismath

Day 2 of tech. Crew was hard at work last night putting spikes on stage. #DialoguesDesCarmelites @CanadianOpera pic.twitter.com/y2DoYYTRqNTodd

Poor nuns. @CanadianOpera pic.twitter.com/gKbKvO2v7DJoel Ivany

Kudos to the 100+ people on and off stage working so hard on #Dialogues @CanadianOpera. Long tech/staging tonight, but going to be worth it!Peter Wismath

Introduction to Dialogues des Carmélites

Dialogues des Carmélites

What's it all about?

In 1794, sixteen members of the members of the Carmel of Compiègne (also known as the Martyrs of Compiègne) were felled by the guillotine as the Reign of Terror swept through post-revolutionary France. The women refused to put away their habits and paid with their lives, but despite their death sentence, their faith prevailed. The women were remembered for renewing their vows and singing as they approached the scaffold.

137 years later, Gertrud von Le Fort released a novella titled Die Letzte am Schafott ("The Last on the Scaffold") and two decades later, Francis Poulenc's opera about the doomed order debuted. The book and subsequently the opera was based on a surviving nun's recollection of the events, told through the perspective of a fictional heroine which she based on herself. The character? The timid and uncertain noblewoman, Blanche de la Force.

Not the strongest of characters at the outset, Blanche is a meek woman who is terrified by the uprising of the French revolutionaries. After one particularly frightening swarming by a local mob, she announces to her family that she wants to become a nun in order to escape the harsh world outside. But with the Reign of Terror spreading across the French countryside, the struggles Blanche will eventually face in the abbey come to test her strength, character and faith in ways that the outside world never could. When the executioners come to call, on which side of the scaffold will she fall?